Enchantment
by Lilae Kane
Summary: In the midst of war, a secret is shared and Lily finally understands.


**_It's been so long since I've been here! Hiiiiiii! Yeah, I know, no one cares. Love you guys anyway. I don't own Harry Potter! If I did I would have written a series to go with Harry's parents' generation AND his children's. But sadly I don't and I'm not J K Rowling. But anyway, here's the story!_**

Lily heard him running to catch up with her before she saw him. She was walking to the Great Hall for supper, her book bag heavy with the homework that would probably take her into the early hours of the morning to finish. The route she was taking was long, so nobody else was around, but still James felt the need to shout. "Hey, Lils! Wait for me, will you?"

Lily stopped walking, sighed and shook her head, amused. Feigning exasperation, said, "What do you want, Potter?" She turned around and almost knocked headfirst into her boyfriend's collarbone. Not that they hadn't knocked heads(or lips) before, but she still stumbled back, surprised.

"I need to show you something." He said, his eyes sparkling with excitement. Lily loved his liveliness.

It had used to annoy her, how James would saunter into a classroom after an all nighter for homework or something and still act as upbeat as the people in muggle commercials sounded, while if Lily stayed up cramming for a test or writing an essay, she would glare at everyone and talk to no one for the next fortnight. Now, he still annoyed her, though not as much. And however much she glowered, James could always cheer her up and make her forget whatever was bothering her, whether it was nightmares, Petunia being nasty to her, the prospect of NEWTS, or generally just everything that was in the future.

Forgetting about the usual amazing food and treacle tart waiting for her downstairs, Lily said, "Okay," and let James lead her up to the seventh floor. They reached a wall across from a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, and as James started pacing past it back and forth, Lily's eyes widened in amazement. A door was appearing out of the wall, becoming solid as she watched. Magic would never cease to surprise her.

James pulled the door open and held it for her. She walked inside, and subconsciously furrowed her eyebrows. She was in a grassy meadow, a light breeze blowing her hair into her face. The sky was dark as it was at midnight, the only light coming from the stars in the sky, which may or may not have been real. At a closer look, she knew it wasn't, because there was a full moon, something which wasn't going to happen for another week or so.

"What is this place?" She asked, looking back behind her at the now shrinking door, and at James, who had just stepped into the enchanted space like he did this every day.

"This-" he said, proudly gesturing around to the expanse of land surrounding the two, "-is the Room of Requirement. It becomes anything you ask it to be, as long as you ask it the right way. And it's unplottable. We marauders tried to put it on our map-didn't work. It just wouldn't stick on the parchment. But that isn't what I came to show you."

Lily gave him a searching look. She'd never seen him this serious, even for a moment, and that worried her. What was wrong?

"Lils...you know what happens with Remus when the full moon comes round." James said gently, taking Lily's hands in his own. She'd figured out the truth about Lupin years ago, but she'd never said anything, and James had only officially told her two months ago, right after the Christmas holidays. "The marauders, we needed to help him. So we taught ourselves how to be strong for him."

He looked around, as though there might be someone else around, and messed up his hair for probably the seven hundredth time that day. He took a deep breath, crouched on his hands and knees, and...

Lily gasped. A mighty stag stood where James had been. She could see it was him in the stag's golden eyes. And then she understood. How the three of them would go out with Remus every month, coming back without a scratch and only tired eyes to hint at anything out of the ordinary.

Her heart ached for them-all of them. This was their last year here. How would they manage this every month for the rest of their lives? And then again, she knew that the marauders' friendship was something so much more important than a simple teenage group. They would go to the ends of the earth for each other. Boundaries impossible to break were nothing but blades of grass to them. They would be there for each other forever.


End file.
